Colossus: Hoover Dam and the Making of the American Century

As breathtaking today as when it was completed, Hoover Dam ranks among America's greatest achievements. The story of its conception, design, and construction is the story of the United States at a unique moment in history: when facing both a global economic crisis and the implacable elements of nature, we prevailed.

I had this in my wish list for almost a year before downloading it, I should have done it sooner. This was a detailed account of not only the building of the dam but of the reasons for it. A history of the imperial valley of California starts the book out and then the appropriation of money that took years in Congress. the story also talks about president Hover, who had little to do with the dams creation but whose name was put on it. Stories of how Hover rewrote the way events transpired in his memoirs to make himself look better was a little surprising.

The story of the construction was well don and you could picture the men at work and almost feel the heat. There is even a story of a dog who became the dams mascot that was very touching.

This was a vary detailed book and I think you need a real interest in the subject to enjoy it fully.

It was a good listen, the narration was good and fit the subject. The next time I visit the dam I shall listen to this again.

Killer: A Jack Rhodes Mystery, Book 1

Jack is an author who was on his way to literary success when his life was blown apart by the horrific suicide of his fiancee. Devastated, Jack went on a fifteen-month alcoholic spiral into near oblivion before eventually working past his demons and becoming best-selling crime novelist. Just as Jack is finishing his fourth book, the LAPD interrupts his routine with news of what appears to be a copycat murder from his first book. There's just one problem - the murder took place before Jack's book was published.

I saw this book on a Audible special, the story sounded unique and kind of an "oh wow" kind of idea so I bought it. My wife and I listened to it on a recent road trip. It was a fun listen. Noah Michael Levine was a good narrator and read the book with enough spirit to keep the story moving along as it was written. It did slow down toward the end, but over all it was good and has me looking for other books by Stephen Carpenter.

Killing Patton: The Strange Death of World War II's Most Audacious General

General George S. Patton, Jr., died under mysterious circumstances in the months following the end of World War II. For almost 70 years, there has been suspicion that his death was not an accident - and may very well have been an act of assassination. Killing Patton will take listeners inside the final year of the war and recount the events surrounding Patton's tragic demise, naming names of the many powerful individuals who wanted him silenced.

This was the second book by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard and it was as enjoyable to read as Killing Kennedy, but like Killing Kennedy, it was not about the Killing of Patton, but was a history of world WWII, little snips of history, and some of it has little to do with Patton, so if you are going into this thinking this will be a detailed look into Patton's death, it was not. But that being said, it was interesting and I like O'Reilly's narration. He reads as if he is just talking to you personally, and while it is not perfect narration, there is some hesitation at times, I think it makes it easy to listen to. All in all a good book.

October Fury

It was the most spectacular display of brinkmanship in the Cold War era. In October 1962, President Kennedy risked inciting a nuclear war to prevent the Soviet Union from establishing missile bases in Cuba. The risk, however, was far greater than Kennedy realized.

This book turned out to be more about the Russian submarines and the US navy trailing them during the crisis then about the Crisis itself.. Lots of detail about life aboard those subs and you quickly find that those Russians were not in an enviable position. Terrible conditions with very little information from their Government about what was going on. But, these subs carried nuclear missiles and they could fire them with out an OK from Moscow if conditions were right. Grover Gardner was good for this book, he does his usual good narration. It was a good book, just not what I expected.

56: Joe Dimaggio and the Last Magic Number in Sports

Seventy baseball seasons ago, on a May afternoon at Yankee Stadium, Joe DiMaggio lined a hard single to left field. It was the quiet beginning to the most resonant baseball achievement of all time. Alongside the story of DiMaggio's dramatic quest, Kennedy deftly examines the peculiar nature of hitting streaks and with an incisive, modern-day perspective gets inside the number itself, as its sheer improbability heightens both the math and the magic of 56 games in a row.

Amazon Customer says:"A fascinating look at both DiMaggio and the streak"

Even though I am a baseball fan and knew quite a bit about the history of the game, I knew little beyond the fact that Joe DiMaggio held the consecutive game hitting record of 56 games. When I saw the book, I thought it was a good time to read it, what it being baseball season and all.

It took me a little time to get "into" the book. At first I did not like Collin's narration, but as the book went along I began to enjoy it more and more and by the end, I thought it was perfect for the book and the subject.

The book goes not only the streak and baseball but also into DiMaggio as a person. Quite and reserved, he had a hard time with crowds. he loved being in the spotlight but didn't like what came with it.

There was a chapter about his first wife and how hard her life with DiMaggio was and that was probably the least interesting part of the book. it did give some incite into his personality, but it is the hitting streak where this book really goes into detail. Not only how hard it was to hit safely in 56 straight games, but how other great hitters, like Ted Williams, one of baseballs greatest hitters and who hit for a 406 batting average in 1941, (the year of the streak) never came close in his carrier.

The book also puts DiMaggio's accomplishment into modern perspective and has one chapter about Pete Rose, who hit safely in 44 games. The final epilogue talks about how statisticians have tried, over the years, to assess the probability of the streak. It's all fascinating listing for baseball fans.

Replay

In 1988, 43-year-old Jeff Winston died of a heart attack. But then he awoke, and it was 1963; Jeff was 18 all over again, his memory of the next two decades intact. This time around, Jeff would gain all the power and wealth he never had before. This time around he'd know how to do it right. Until next time.

This is a great audio book and a great story. At first, when I listened to the sample I thought the reading was going to be just OK, but the story line was interesting so I gave it a try, but as I listened to William Dufris narration I found it was perfect for the subject, not boring at all. and the characters became people you can identify with, you can put yourself into their place as things happened to them as they went through each rewind. I think we have always wondered what we would do differently with our life if we had the chance to go back and live it again, but what if we had to go back again and again. Great book and a great listen. On of my favorites.

The Power

The Secret revealed the law of attraction. Now Rhonda Byrne reveals the greatest power in the universe: The Power to have anything you want. In this book you will come to understand that all it takes is just one thing to change your relationships, money, health, happiness, career, and your entire life. Every discovery, invention, and human creation comes from The Power. Perfect health, incredible relationships, a career you love, a life filled with happiness....

I have been an avid reader and listener to motivational books for years and many have given me some good ideas. Some have even changed my way of thinking and to that end, my life. But non have given me a way to change, to really bury my old thought process like The Power. Love and gratitude is the answer to help move out those negative thoughts that creep into your mind. Rhonda Byrne's book The Secret sets down the Law of Attractions and delves into some of what The power does, but the power gave you a tool to make the Secret work. it's simple stuff, but we don't need to make this complicated. Great book and I will listen to this over and over again, as I have the Secret.

Bums: An Oral History of the Brooklyn Dodgers

Before the team headed to Los Angeles in 1957, the Brooklyn Dodgers were one of the most colorful and beloved teams in baseball. In Bums, best-selling author Peter Golenbock has compiled a fascinating oral history of the Ebbets Field heroes with recollections from former players, writers, front-office executives, and faithful fans.

I am a die hard Los Angeles Dodger fan, having moved to LA in 1963, so I never experienced the dodgers in Brooklyn, but I knew the basic history of the team during that time. This book gives an in depth look at the players, managers and owners of the team. it was well written and detailed but it lacked a good narrator.

Raymond Todd did not bring excitement to the story, his voice was monotone. Even in times of great elation, or sadness, which the Brooklyn Dodgers were full of both, you could not tell it from his narration. If I was not a big Dodger fan I don't think I could have finished it.

Parkland

Releasing this fall, the movie - starring Paul Giamatti, Zac Efron, Jacki Weaver, and Billy Bob Thornton - follows a group of individuals making split-second decisions after this incomprehensible event: the doctors and nurses at Parkland Hospital, the chief of the Dallas Secret Service, the cameraman who captured what has become the most examined film in history, the FBI agents who had gunman Lee Harvey Oswald within their grasp, and Vice President Lyndon Johnson who had to take control of the country at a moment's notice.

This was a very good book, well written and well narrated. I am 58 and have read many books on the Kennedy Assassination over the years, most of them from the conspiracy point of view. This book follows the days events and delves very little into those theories. Even thought I know the story, I was riveted to it. George Newbern did a great job with the narration.

This book dose assume that Oswald acted alone, and if you are one who believes that he had help, the book may be a little harder to get through then it was for me. For years I had believed in a conspiracy, but over time I have come to believe, hard as it may seam, that Oswald acted alone.

Yes, the Dallas police messed up, the did not record their interviews with Oswald and they allowed Ruby into the basement. The body was taken from Dallas county to Washington DC, in spite of the fact it was not a federal crime. Oswald lived in Russia, went to the Russian embassy in Mexico City and was a very strange individual. Ruby did have some ties to organized crime. All those things, and what seam like hundreds of other problems, are true. They do leave a lot of room for speculation, but that all is is. Just speculation.

When Giants Walked the Earth: A Biography of Led Zeppelin

They were the last great band of the '60s and the first great band of the '70s. They rose, somewhat unpromisingly, from the ashes of the Yardbirds to become one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time - and eventually paid the price for it, with disaster, drug addiction, and death.

I had had this book in my wish list for about a year before I decided that it was time to listen to it. I grew up in the era of Led Zeppelin, and one of my life's biggest regrets is that I never saw them live, but that being said, I was never a hug fan. I recognized that they were the biggest band of that era, and that they had something that no other band had, that certain mystique, that certain quality that held them up as rock gods, thus the title of the book is appropriate. My rock god was Ritchie Blackmore and Ronnie James Dio, but that is nether here nor there.

This was one of my favorite audio books, and I listen to a lot of them, I knew a little of the story, but this gave a very in depth portrait of the players in the story, the band and back players. By the end of the book I was feeling a bit sorry for Jimmy Page, who seemed to never be able to let Led Zeppelin go, and Page who was just sick of it. They had climbed the mountain, unlike anyone else, they had reached the very top, and then, for several of them, life was no longer fun. Life at the top is not all that it is cracked up to be. Drugs, booze, death all took their tole.

Simon Vances narration is perfect for this book. I do agree that if you do not like off color language, as one reviewer said, this is not the book for you, but in the context used her, it is just as I would think the players would talk, and the use of first person narration, Vance changes his voice, ever so slightly and for me it was brilliantly used to brake up the normal flow of the book. all in all, a great read,. I was sorry to come to the end of it and will listen to it again sometime.

Three Simple Steps: A Map to Success in Business and Life

How many self-help books are written by authors whose biggest success is selling self-help books? Three Simple Steps is different. Despite stock market crashes, dot-com busts, and the specter of recession, the author started a virtual company from home, using a few thousand dollars of his savings. A few years later, without ever hiring an employee or leaving his home office, he sold it for more than $100 million. As the economy slipped into another free fall, he did this again with a company in a different field. He accomplished this through no particular genius.

The Three Simple Steps has no real new ideas, but these ideas are put in terms that make them easy to understand and to put into practice and that is its true brilliance. I have read numerous self help books in the last twenty of thirty years and non of them put the basics in such terms that allow you to follow them.

You are what you think about, has been taught through out the history of the subject, but my trouble was always how to put that into practice. Blake tells you not just to think positive, because we all know that is hard to do, but how we react to the negative thoughts that makes the difference. When a negative thought come into your head, try and think a even better, positive thought to drown it out. Think about what you hear and say, as he says, map it on your tough before you speak, change a little, change a lot.Good advice.

I had listened to "The Secret" and it all made since, but it never told you how to keep the positive thoughts in your head, to keep from getting bogged down in the negative. Blake gives you some great advice. It's the next step, at least for me.

The other two steps are to take quiet time each day to get to nothingness, that is where the great ideas come from and then have intentions, not just goals. Intentions are something that you can see as already happening, goals are something that is going to happen. It's a subtle , but important difference.

He did sometimes get bogged down in too long story telling, the stories were good, just a little to long, and the narration was just ok, but I will listen to it again.

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